Enough
by calliecature
Summary: AU. She had always sensed him hold back. Now, she wants to move ahead and she's going to drag him with her is she has to.


Fanfiction Audler Project

**Summary**: She had always sensed him hold back. Now, she wants to move ahead and she's going to drag him with her is she has to.

**Writer's note**: since most of the Audler fics I've read insists there is a 9 year age difference between them, I thought I might as well give it a try. Enjoy! You know the drill; I don't own anything in this fic.

To **Bellechat**: I didn't want to promise anything, but the story was fighting to get out.

Audrey couldn't decide if he was being a good man or if he was just being an idiot.

She checked her watch- 11: 29 PM. She crept outside her home and silently closed the door behind her. Still, she thanked her stars that her dad has the ability to sleep through an annual town parade in all of its booming glory.

With a grunt, she lifted her bike over their picket fence and jumped over. Grabbing the handlebars, she rode through her neighbourhood, feeling the night air flapping her jacket. She pedalled fast until all the houses were nothing but a blur and she sees nothing but the memories playing inside her head.

* * *

She was 15. Audrey was sitting on a chair with her elbows at his dining table, looking glumly at Once-ler's back.

"You do realize that walking all the way here at night isn't safe, don't you?" he said as he boil water for hot chocolate.

"I don't know where else to go," was her toneless reply. She gave herself a glance. With her red hair, she decided to dress as a character from Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas for Halloween. She had covered herself with lotion mixed with lots of unwanted gray eyeshadow and had drawn stitchmarks around her wrists, elbows, knees and even on the corners of her lips up to her ears. Then she wore a patchwork dress that she actually sewed, artistically ripped at the sleeves and the hems.

"The moment I entered her party, all the girls in there were dressed in… cutie-pie outfits." With the word "cutie-pie" she meant "sexy straight from FHM".

She continued, "I stick out like a sore thumb and felt like a little girl." She looked up at the ceiling as though she was asking the heavens. What was she thinking in the first place?

A thud of the mug made Audrey look down again. She thanked him and wrapped her hands around it savouring the aroma of chocolate and marshmallows. Once-ler sat down across the table with his own mug and began heaping marshmallows on it.

"Audrey, you don't need a costume to look cute." He waved a hand to her. "I mean, c'mon. You're already pretty."

Audrey looked up surprise. She looked at his face long and hard. He simply looked at her. Not a single meaningful stare can be seen, no uncomfortable shifting of his gaze, not even a blush.

The redhaired girl relaxed and gave him a smile over her mug. He would never see her that way, the gap is too great. Then she had to bit her lip when she realized something else. Once-ler, even at the age of 24, is so naïve at what she meant with "cutie-pie".

"I've been told. Thanks, anyway."

* * *

Her watch read 11:35 PM. The air tasted sweeter outside the forest.

She had been relieved at first when she first figured it out. Her mother had warned her that "a young man, no matter how old, would always have some hot blood in him". But Once-ler had ended those fears.

She didn't expect there would be a time it would bother her then.

* * *

She was 16. Audrey should have known better than to teach him how to dance.

They were outside the forest and the snow was falling lightly. In winter, all the forest animals either migrate to somewhere or hibernate and the forest was left as the town children's snow world. But as the day was ending, they had the forest for themselves.

"Girls love to dance, Once-ler. They think it's romantic and stuff, especially the slow dance."

Once-ler had folded his arms in front of him, his eyebrows were pulled into a frown but Audrey can see that he was shuffling his feet was not because of the cold. "How did we even end up in this conversation?"

Audrey pretended to look thoughtful, "Let's see, I came here all excited about the school's winter dance then I eventually found out that my best friend of a guy doesn't know how to dance even at the age of 25." She paused as though to think more, "Yup," she said nodding her head, "that's pretty it."

Once-ler sulked on the pink thneed around his neck, "How did you even got that out from me?"

The teenage girl put her hands on her hips. "Once-ler, when you finally found THE girl and she's sending signals that she wants to dance, what are you going to do? Let some other guy dance with her because he knows how and you don't?"

That challenge made him looked at her. "Fine," he grumbled.

Audrey took a step closer to him. She wasn't short but the top of her head only reached his chin. In a businesslike manner, she took both of his hands and placed them on her waist. Instantly, she felt the muscles in his long arms tensed.

She looked up to his face and she could see the discomfort written all over his face. She dropped his hands on his sides.

"You've never been this close to a girl before, have you?"

The young man averted her gaze and tried to talk his shame to admittance, "Yrrrrrhh..ye…kind of."

She took a step closer to him, "Not even a cousin?" She knew he had no sisters.

He took a step back, his shoulder rising slightly with tension at each passing second. "Aaaaaah… no?"

Still, she tried to close in that space. Her heart, weirdly, had begun to thump louder, "Not even a friend?"

Yet, he backed away from her. He seemed to duck his head deeper in his thneed. His face couldn't have been turning red because of the cold, could it? "Not a lot of people like me from where I came from," he managed to say.

When she persistently stepped forward again, he didn't countered it with a backward step but instead grabbed both of her shoulders and held her away at arm's length.

A moment of silence passed, as her mind registered their position. She felt his long fingers loosen their grip on her.

"If we keep on walking like that, I'd slide head first down that Descent of Death," he said.

Audrey looked over his shoulder and saw that they were indeed near the edge of the snowhill- about several metres away, actually. She looked at him, but he was already walking towards a "safe" distance.

* * *

The moon shining in her watch now told her it is now 11: 47 PM. She remembered the time her girl best friend said matter-of-factly that the cause of her singlehood was because of her "mancrush." Audrey simply scoffed at the idea and went on with life.

But, she has to admit, it is hard to see a guy for something else when she'd realize too late, she's comparing them to someone. While the guys would try to act cool, look cool, talk cool; Once-ler would just be… Once-ler. The guy who'd rather knit.

She remembered the tension that wintery sunset. That was her boldest so far and he simply held her back at arm's length. All those times that she had been giving him the signs that she was on to him both consciously and unconsciously, how long had he been holding back?

Audrey rode over a rock that jostled her back to reality. She looked around her as she pedalled. She's getting nearer.

* * *

She was 17. It was her favourite time of the year. The air was alight with the pollen of the truffula trees- lighter than snow but too large to irritate the eyes. They were little balls of fluff and Audrey happily held her hand up in the air.

Someone called her out and Audrey turned still smiling. Once-ler walked towards her but his gaze was awestruck at the floating pollen.

"I never saw something like this before," he said, letting one land on the top of his hand.

"Then you're in luck. The tufts of the Truffula trees serve as both the function of the flower and the leaf. They release pollen mostly for self-pollination but for them to release pollen at almost the same day of the same time is very rare for they always have different times of releasing these."

He nodded in understanding before giving her a tilted smile of amusement, "You really loved these trees don't you?"

Audrey simply laughed and gave a self-mocking smile. Once-ler took off his hat and shook the pollen away, he did a double took when he saw her hair.

"Hold on."

Her breath hitched when he reached out and grasped her by the shoulder while his other hand began brushing away the fluffs from her hair. She was so closed and she could feel the blood rushing to her face. Her eyes travelled on the tufts of raven hair that stick out from under his hat, the blue eyes concentrated at his task…

Then the blue eyes travelled down to meet her green ones. There was a moment of silence that seemed to grip them both. She saw his eyes shift to the sides as though looking for a forest animal to come break it, even the Lorax is welcomed.

But none came. She had noticed before that fewer and fewer animals had been joining the two of them as more and more of them felt something in the air: tension.

Seeing that none was going to break it, he did it himself. He cleared his throat and turned away as though to look at the view before them. "Geez, its sure is pretty in here, isn't it?"

She has had enough. Before his mind could even acknowledge it, Once-ler felt two arms entwined around his waist from behind. Audrey felt him stiffen as she pulled him closer to her. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his back.

"Have I ever been anything else to you, Once-ler?" she asked quietly, so quietly, even the silence in of the forest died down.

She knew he could feel her heart thumping rapidly on his back. When he didn't answer, she continued, "What is it that you really feel about me?"

She felt the occluded breath in his trunk hitch higher as she reached up one hand and place it on his chest- right over the rapid beating.

"A- Audrey," his voice coming out in a rasp whisper, "I'm almost a decade older than you."

The girl answered back without skipping a beat, "And I'm almost 18, what's stopping you?"

But she knew what was stopping him. It was his moral system that went along with the society's that decides who and who isn't a child or an adult. That moral plug that held back whatever thoughts he had of her that went beyond platonic.

Yet as the years passed and she came closer to being an official adult, that plug had begun to ease out and it scared him. Scared of what she would think if she found out, scared of not being good enough, scared that he may be betraying their friendship and her trust, scared that he may have held back too-

But it wasn't just about the fear or the age bracket. It was also the responsibility. He was no fool and he knew the consequences of a large age gap. He has to wait and he has to see it through.

She let go of him. Once-ler suddenly exhaled, never noticing that he had held his breath in what felt like an eternity- an eternity that lasted too short. He dared to look over his shoulder and sensing no violent reaction, turned around uncertainly.

He thought his mind had burned to memory that image before him. Fluffs of truffula pollen floated around them and some are again, catching on her hair. But it was the smile that stood out the most. Her green eyes, her whole face smiled in an unconscious beauty of touched gratitude and the serene acceptance at her flash of insight. It had actually dimmed the pastel puffs of truffula trees behind her back.

"It's okay, Once-ler. I understand."

Audrey turned and began to walk away. Enough beating around the bush, all the cards are now in his hands.

One step.

_Is he that scared? _

Two steps.

_Did he think he was trying to protect me, when I had been younger?_

Three-

A large hand gripped hers and she froze.

_Am I hoping against hope?_

"I'll wait for you," he said quietly. "I always have."

Her hand gave it one last squeezed before it slipped from his fingers and she ran. Audrey heard him call her but she didn't turn back.

* * *

That had been three days ago. Audrey placed her bike on the ground and looked at her watch: 11: 59 PM. Ignoring the front door, she walked around the house and climbed up his window. She turned on the lamp and Once-ler's sleeping form was revealed. He stirred at the harsh light and opened his eyes.

"Audrey? What- Hhmmph!"

The rest of whatever question he had to ask was muffled as Audrey fell on top of him and captured his mouth with hers. His eyes widened in shock but he soon began kissing her back, his arms wrapped around her with one hand caressing her spine and the other pressed on her head to deepen the kiss. It was a moment before he had gathered his wits and he rolled her over so that he can have a moment to rise up. That took a bit longer for Audrey had arched forward to prolong their kiss.

"Audrey, what-"

He suddenly saw the alarm clock. 12:03 AM.

Once-ler looked back at Audrey who had a beatific smile on her face as it dawned on him.

"You forgot, didn't you?" she teased.

His smile couldn't have been happier, "Happy birthday."

Audrey gave a laugh and closed her hands on the collar of his bunny PJs and began to pull him back to her.

"I've waited long enough, too."

**Writer's note:** I was thinking they simply shared a kiss. But it's up to your chastity what they did after. This is the first time I have written this kind of fanfic. I guess those fics have been rubbing off on me (shudders).

I don't know what I was thinking; this would never, ever happen in real life. But hey, fiction is the only place where drama seems right, yet it's still a fact. Hope you enjoyed it.

The pollen idea came from a fanart in that i've seen before. i tried to find its link but i got lead to a mature content that is best to be forgotten.


End file.
